Glenn Thibeault 'Sought Certain Benefits' To Be MPP: Crown

SUDBURY, Ont. — A former MP, who is now Ontario's energy minister, allegedly "sought certain benefits" to run in a provincial byelection, a Crown lawyer prosecuting two Ontario Liberals on Election Act bribery charges said Monday.

But while the two Liberals, including Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne's former deputy chief of staff, face bribery counts under the act, Energy Minister Glenn Thibeault does not.

"The section makes it an offence to offer, not necessarily to receive (a bribe)," said federal prosecutor Vern Brewer.

Thibeault's lawyer said the Crown was sullying Thibeault's reputation and said the prosecutor's comments were wrong.

The charges against the two provincial Liberals — Pat Sorbara and Liberal operative Gerry Lougheed — stem from allegations the pair offered a would-be candidate a job or appointment to get him to step aside in a 2015 byelection in Sudbury, Ont., for the premier's preferred candidate.

That preferred candidate was Thibeault, who was then a New Democrat MP for Sudbury, and he ultimately won that byelection for the provincial Liberals.

'An office or employment'

One of the charges against Sorbara is over an allegation she promised to get Thibeault "an office or employment" to induce him to become a candidate.

After Sorbara and Lougheed's first court appearance Monday, Brewer expanded on the allegation as it relates to Thibeault.

"The allegation in respect to that count relates to our allegation that Mr. Thibeault sought certain benefits, offers or job or employment as part of his conditions to run as (an) MPP," he said.

"The prosecutor chose to make his remarks outside of court to reporters instead of respecting the sub judice rule, which recognizes the impropriety of out-of-court comment on a prosecution which is before the courts," Ian Smith wrote in a statement.

"The Crown has chosen to sully Mr. Thibeault's reputation without ever naming him as the target of its investigations, without ever charging him, and, most importantly, knowing that he will have no trial where he could mount a proper defence."

Thibeault will "consider all of his legal options" over the remarks that are "disgraceful and ill-considered" and will likely cause him "serious reputational damage," Smith wrote.

Ontario's opposition parties called for Thibeault to step aside after it was revealed that one of Sorbara's charges related to an offer allegedly made to him. Thibeault has refused, since he isn't under investigation and faces no charges.

Ex-MP says he wasn't offered cabinet spot

Thibeault has said the premier did not offer him a cabinet position in exchange for running, nor did Sorbara make him any offers. A spokesman said Monday that Thibeault had nothing to add to his previous statements.

Sorbara has said she believes the charges against her will not succeed and she is "shocked" by any suggestion she has done something wrong. Sorbara recently took a leave of absence from her job as Wynne's deputy chief of staff to become the Ontario Liberals' CEO and 2018 campaign director, posts she resigned from when the charges were laid.

Lawyers for Sorbara and Lougheed appeared on their behalf in Sudbury on Monday for their first court appearance and the case was adjourned to Dec. 14.

Ontario has given carriage of the case to the federal prosecution service.

'Complex legal issues'

Brewer, of the Public Prosecution Service of Canada, said outside court that he and the defence lawyers made an application to have the matter heard by a judge instead of a justice of the peace.

"It's the first prosecution we're aware of under this section and there are significant and complex legal issues," he said.

Lougheed's charge and a second charge against Sorbara are over an allegation they offered Andrew Olivier, a previous Sudbury provincial Liberal candidate who intended to run for the party again in the byelection, a job or appointment to get him to step aside for Thibeault.

Wynne has said that discussions with Olivier were about trying to keep him in the party fold, and that there was no quid pro quo because she had already decided to appoint Thibeault as the candidate before she, Sorbara and Lougheed spoke with Olivier.

Lougheed had also been charged criminally in the Sudbury byelection investigation, with one count of counselling an offence not committed and one count of unlawfully influencing or negotiating appointments, but those charges were stayed earlier this year.

Lougheed's lawyer, Michael Lacy, said his client has maintained "he didn't do anything that would attract a culpable finding."

— With files from CJMX in Sudbury

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Sudbury Byelection Scandal: Key Dates

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The Ontario Provincial Police are investigating allegations of bribery and corruption after a former Ontario Liberal candidate said he was offered a job or appointment to step aside for Premier Kathleen Wynne's choice in a Sudbury byelection. Wynne has denied the allegations.
Here are some key dates in the scandal...
Information courtesy of The Canadian Press

Sudbury New Democrat MPP Joe Cimino resigns after just five months on the job, citing "personal health wellness."

Premier Kathleen Wynne meets with NDP MP Glenn Thibeault, who agrees to run for the provincial Liberals. Wynne has said she decided at that meeting to appoint him.

Local Liberal and chair of the Sudbury police services board Gerry Lougheed visits Andrew Olivier, the failed Liberal candidate in the June provincial election who was seeking to run again. Lougheed asks Olivier to consider stepping aside and nominating Thibeault and tells Olivier "in the course of that deliberation'' to consider "appointments, jobs, whatever.''

Wynne phones Olivier, who is quadriplegic and tapes conversations as his way of taking notes. He says technical difficulties prevent him from recording that exchange.

Pat Sorbara, Wynne's deputy chief of staff, phones Olivier and says Wynne is "going to have to make a decision around the appointment,'' later telling him they should chat about what he would be interested in doing, be it "appointments to boards or commissions,'' a constituency office job or role in the party executive.

Olivier goes public with claims that Lougheed and Sorbara offered him a job or appointment to step aside; Progressive Conservatives ask Ontario Provincial Police to investigate; New Democrats ask Elections Ontario to investigate.

Thibeault publicly announces he will be the Ontario Liberals' byelection candidate.

Olivier releases audio of his conversations with Lougheed and Sorbara; Progressive Conservatives ask OPP to reopen the investigation.

Thibeault wins Sudbury byelection; in a court document filed in order to get Olivier's original recordings, police say they have "grounds to believe'' a criminal offence was committed. The investigation is ongoing.

Elections Ontario makes "unprecedented finding'' that Lougheed and Sorbara's actions were in "apparent contravention'' of the Election Act; matter is referred to OPP and federal Crown.

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Ontario voters were able to look past these five scandals when they gave Kathleen Wynne's Liberals a majority government in June, 2014.
(Information courtesy of The Canadian Press)

Ontario's publicly funded air ambulance service has been under fire for almost two years over sky-high salaries, financial irregularities and corruption allegations. A legislative committee has been probing the service's complex structures and pay scales in detail, and opposition parties have been alleging wrongdoing with nearly every revelation. The auditor general has criticized the governing Liberals for failing to oversee Ornge, despite giving it $730 million over five years and allowing it to borrow another $300 million. The Liberals insist Ornge went rogue with a web of for-profit companies and questionable business deals, as well as exorbitant salaries and lavish expenses.

Scandal has swirled around the government's decision to cancel the construction of two Toronto-area gas plants ahead of the 2011 election, in which the government then led by Dalton McGuinty was reduced to minority status. The cancellation costs have now been pegged at $1.1 billion, but opposition parties have accused the Liberals of actively trying to cover up that figure. Ontario's privacy commissioner has concluded that staff working for McGuinty and a former energy minister broke the law by deleting emails pertaining to the project. Ontario Provincial Police are also investigating the document deletions, seizing government computers at both Queen's Park and beyond.

The provincial agency was given a $1-billion budget to develop electronic health records, but wound up building themselves a bad reputation. A lot of the eHealth money went for untendered contracts given to highly paid consultants who then billed taxpayers for additional expenses in a scandal that cost former health minister David Caplan his job. In 2009, the auditor general said the agency had very little progress to show for its efforts, and opposition parties have alleged further financial mismanagement since then.

The government has taken heat for not immediately acting when it learned a $1.4-billion infrastructure project didn't live up to safety standards. The Liberals were told that questionable materials were being used on the support beams on Windsor's Herb Gray Parkway in December 2012, but didn't halt the project until July. More than 500 support beams are being replaced by the project overseer at no cost to the tax payers, but the NDP has accused the Wynne government of trying to cover up the affair and only backing down when threatened with media exposure.

Premier Kathleen Wynne has hailed the 2015 games as a cause for celebration, but opposition parties call it just another scandal. The $1.4-billion budget for the games does not include some key expenses, like the $700 million athletes' village. The government has also come under fire for $7 million worth of bonuses paid out to 64 executives.

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